Saturday, August 16, 2008

It seems to be the season of "Top 10" in blogland. Both FilmiGirl and the Post-Punk Cinema Club have put up their selection of top 10 songs for various decades. Never having done a top 10 of anything before, I promptly and shamelessly decided to copy the idea. However, to weed out Top 10 songs from literally hundreds of songs every decade is a Herculean task and a beginner like me needs something much simpler. After much cogitation I settled on Top 10 Comedies simply because great comedies in Bollywood appear but rarely and it shouldnt be hard to select 10. Having committed myself to the task, I realised that Bollywood has way too many great comedies to make this any easier than top 10 songs!

What you see here is the result of sheer hard work and days of frantic weeding and ruthless trimming - I've even managed to limit myself to only two comedies each from directors Basu Chatterji and Hrishikesh Mukherji who between them were responsible for most of the great comedies in the 70s and 80s!

If jest be the food of life, read on... and dont forget to tell me about your favorite comedies.

Two bumbling young men meet up on the path of get-rich-quick by attempting to marry the same rich girl. Alternately collaborating and competing with each other for their heiress, they run into bizarre villains, confusing look-alikes and every possible situation that a hero of a successful 70s masala block-buster could look forward to. From these trials they emerge triumphant, with their love-lives and fortunes made. What makes it especially amusing is its use of cliches to create a hilarious parody of masala movies. Salman Khan and Aamir Khan as the aspiring fortune-hunters are uproariously funny and ably supported by their heroines - Raveena Tandon and Karishma Kapoor - their villains - Shakti Kapoor, Shehzad Khan and Viju Khote - and the goody-baddy lookalikes played by Paresh Rawal. Raj Kumar Santoshi's tongue-in-cheek nod to 70s Bollywood still has me in splits everytime I watch it, though I havent watched it as often as Veracious seems to have!

An insane comedy in the best tradition of screwball comedies - this one would do P. G. Wodehouse proud. Two strangers - Nandu (Aftab Shivdasani) and Anjali (Rimi Sen) - arriving in Mumbai to make their fortunes, pretend to be a married couple to rent a cheap apartment. Anjali is mistaken for reclusive millionaire Radheshyam Tiwari's (Paresh Rawal) daughter by the mercenary Jeetu (Akshaye Khanna) who proceeds to woo her. Tiwari's wife (Shoma Anand) suspects him of having an affair with Anjali while Tiwari himself suspects that his wife is sweet on Jeetu. Throw in a few more misunderstandings and co-incidences, several more zany characters and you have a laughathon on your hands!

A lighthearted romantic comedy starring Farooq Shaikh and Surinder Kaur (you've seen her as Saif's Mom in Parineeta). Boy meets girl and the girl sets out to impress him with her wealth by lending him her luxurious apartment. The only problem is that the apartment isnt hers - she's been given the contract to decorate it for the rich absentee owner who just happens to be her new boyfriend! (I saw this one years ago and am still looking for its DVD.)

An insane misunderstanding that leads to love. Here, an almost-out-of-work actress - Geeta (Rati Agnihotri) - accepts a ride from the chauffeur of wealthy industrialist Sandeep Anand. She is seen descending from Sandeep's limo and assumed to be his fiancé, all unbeknownst to herself. As a result, wonderful things begin to happen to her - her theatre company makes her the leading lady of all their productions, she is courted and fêted wherever she goes and a journalist (Mithun Chakraborty) becomes her constant shadow. She finds herself falling for him only to find out that he is none other than Sandeep Anand! Directed by Basu Chatterji, this fun comedy also stars Utpal Dutt, Ashok Kumar, Subbiraj, Javed Khan and several of my favorite 80s TV stars.

Meena Kumari in a rare comedic role while she was still unaffected by alcohol and melancholia - that alone makes this movie worth watching. But that isnt all. She plays Mary, an out-of-work teacher unsuccessfully looking for a job.

When fellow teacher Arun (Gemini Ganeshan) suggests that they pretend to be married for a job advertised for married couples, she reluctantly agrees. They get the job and land-up having to live as man and wife with a wacko private eye (Kishore Kumar) watching over them while a beautiful student falls for Arun. Throw in some lost-and-found daughters, comic villains and some of 50s best loved songs and you have an entertaining comedy to while away the hours! Check out MemsaabStory's excellent write-up for a comprehensive review.

An adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors, the movie involves two sets of identical twins - a pair of Ashoks and their pair of twin servants named Bahadur - with one of each pair separated in childhood. They are brought up in different cities and while one Ashok and his Bahadur are married to Sudha (Moushumi Chatterji) and Prema (Aruna Irani), respectively, the other Ashok-Bahadur pair is unmarried. Chance brings the bachelors to the city of their married twins and utter chaos ensues with nobody (including themselves and their wives) realising that there are two Ashoks and Bahadurs.

In the comedy of errors that ensues, the unmarried Ashok finds himself falling for Sudha's beautiful sister Tanu (Deepti Naval) who thinks he is married to her sister! The resulting situations are hilarious and milked for all their humor by the excellent dialogue and screenplay written by director Gulzar. Caution: a side effects of watching this movie is severe stitch-in-the-side from laughing too much.

One of director Hrishikesh Mukherji's lesser known comedies, this one is the story of an enterprising young man who manages to please everybody while serving his own ends. Ramprasad (Amol Palekar) is the enterprising young man who houses his lady-love Kusum (Swaroop Sampat) and her father (A. K. Hangal) in an old house owned by his employer Bhavani Shankar (Utpal Dutt). The comedy derives from his attempts to prevent their discovery and ultimate eviction from the property. Ramprasad cleverly exploits the very human weaknesses of his employer and fellow colleagues to bring about his own happily-ever-after. Apart from Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt's expectedly brilliant performances, the other memorable performance is that of Shatrughan Sinha as Babua - Bhavani Shankar's younger brother who is keen on body-building and avoiding women but promptly forgets these in the light of Kusum's beauty!

An off-beat comedy by Basu Chatterji starring Anil Kapoor, Amrita Singh and Amjad Khan that takes a humorous look at life and romance in a small-town. Chameli (Amrita Singh) is the grown up daughter of coal-seller Nathilal (Pankaj Kapoor). Her scholarly ambitions make her stick to high school inspite of failing multiple times and her romanic disposition makes her pursue Charandas (Anil Kapoor) an unemployed chela (disciple) of the local pehelwaan (wrestler)Ustaad Mastram (Om Prakash). Charandas succumbs to Chameli's charms and the romance is helped along by Charandas's guru in matters of romance - Advocate Harish (Amjad Khan in a rare comedic role).

Their hilarious romance and its amusingly filmi aftermath is brilliantly utilised to sketch a picture of small-town life. The performance of the principals and the rest of the cast (which also includes several TV and stage actors of the day) is superb and the movie never fails to tickle my funny bone.

A Marx-brothers-meet-Bollywood-masala type of comedy that has entertained people for half a century. Three brothers Brijmohan, Jagmohan, and Manmohan (real-life brothers Ashok Kumar, Anup Kumar, and Kishore Kumar, respectively) run a garage that does not cater to customers of the female sex. When Renu (Madhubala) turns up at the garage one night to get her car repaired, she triggers a storm in this bastion of masculinity. Manmohan falls for her and flouts elder brother Brijmohan's diktat against women. Apart from facing Brijmohan's misogynism, the young lovers have to battle murderers masquerading as princes, they need to don funny disguises, go on hilarious car-chases and help Manmohan's two elder brothers find love, too. (Check out Filmi Geek's excellent write-up for an in-depth review) An old favorite, this is a fast-paced laugh-riot that never fails to bring on he laughs even after several re-watches!

An all-time favorite, this Hrishikesh Mukherji-directed film is a delicious blend of witty dialogues and insane situations that come together in a wacky comedy (fellow-blogizens Beth and Carla agree!). After a comic whirlwind romance, famous botanist Dr. Parimal Tripathi (Dharmendra) marries botany-fangirl Sulekha (Sharmila Tagore) only to be regaled endlessly with praises of her brother-in-law Raghav (Om Prakash) whom he's never met. To take his rightful position as numero uno in Sulekha's esteem, he decides to play a practical joke on Raghav. He takes up a job as Raghav's driver and manages to *seduce* Raghav's visiting sister-in-law (and his wife) Sulekha.

Enter Sulekha's pretend husband - Parimal's English-teaching friend Sukumar (Amitabh Bachchan) - and poor Raghav's plight is pitiable. Throw in a love interest - Vasudha (Jaya Bhaduri) - for Sukumar and you have all the characters caught in a comical charade with only the viewer completely in the know. The dialogues are especially witty and include a play on English phonetics and Hindi words that still has me in splits after more than a dozen re-watches!

Other comedies that I love but which did not make it to the top 10:

Sur Asur which stars Rohan Kapoor (and others whom I cant remember) and is a great parody of Bollywood masala.

Director Kundan Shah's wonderful satire on the ways of the world in early 80s India is perhaps the only dark comedy in Bollywood. It involves two struggling photographers - Vinod (Nasseeruddin Shah) and Sudhir (Ravi Baswani) - who inadvertently photograph the commission of a murder. They don the hats of private investigators and their investigations lead them into the murky world of Bombay real-estate. Their bumbling attempts to find the murderer and expose the scandals in the real-estate business make for hilarious situations. The movie comes complete with impeccable pedigree - apart from Nasseer and Baswani, the cast includes Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Neena Gupta and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (according to imdb), plus several other leading theatre and TV actors of the day. Needless to say, the performances are superb! A movie that successfully combines slapstick with biting satire and doesnt fail to bring on the laughs.

58 comments:

Hi Bollyviewer: Andaz Apna Apna and Chupke Chupke (and the Munnabhai series) are my all-time favorites. I haven't seen several in your list, and shall hope to check them out now. Thanks for sharing this!

Very interesting selection of movies! These are some of the movies that I have myself enjoyed tremendously (havent seen them all yet!). I remember laughing uncontrollably while watching Angoor - it was a long time ago. Should rewatch!

Hi theBollywoodFan, AAA and CC are such evergreen movies. They've both aged so well. I love the Munnabhai series too, especially the second one, but havent re-watched them so dont know whether I'll find them as great on second viewing.

Hi Ruchi, welcome to the blog! :-) You can re-watch Angoor - on youtube. Isnt the internet a splendid thing?

I wanted to comment on Prem Deewane. I also loved it. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I watched it around when it first came out and I remember it wasn't that popular. Please correct me if I'm wrong or not.

memsaab, I was quite surprised when I compiled my list and checked for years of release on imdb. Didnt think 80s had so many interesting movies - guess I should lose some of my prejudice against that decade, too!

Nicki, Prem Deewaane was such fun - especially the way they parodied the romantic situations in usual Bollywood movies. Its not a movie I've heard a lot about - so you may be right about its not being a hit.

Thanks for posting this list! Bollywood and comedy are two elements that don't always work together for me...but my experience is limited, and have some great recommendations thanks to your list and the suggestions from some of the comments on my blog! Good idea, though...and I can never read enough top 10 lists, so don't worry about the copying thing!

Nida, you are welcome. I dont usually associate Bollywood with many great comedies either, which is why I set out to compile a Top 10 thinking it would be simple! By the time I was done, I realised that it was NOT true and I personally have seen more good Bollywood comedies than I can accomodate in the list. :-)

Nirvana, you are perfectly right. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron should have made it to my list - cant believe I forgot it! All I can say in my defense is that I watched it years ago and havent re-watched since. Have to mend this omission, pronto!

Ajnabi, You can have a lot of fun hunting for them and finally getting to watch them! :-)

Shweta, Nobody seems to know of Yahan Wahan! I watched it on a pirated video cassette about the time it came out and then was fortunate enough to catch it when it aired on DoorDarshan a few years later. I think its going to be my quest to hunt up every Farooq Shaikh comedy I can find out about - they are such fun and he is so good at it!

Agreed with your entire list except for yahan wahan (which I have never heard of or seen) and Miss Mary (which I have heard of but never seen:) ).I would probably add to this list Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Chasme Buddoor :)

Reviewer thanks for stopping by. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron is probably the only Bollywood dark comedy and yet, its such fun too. I saw an interview of Nasseeruddin Shah where he said that there should be a sequel to JBDY now that Delhi is studded with flyovers! And Chashme Buddoor is such a lighthearted look at life in Delhi - I love it! Like I said in my comment to Shweta, I am now on a mission to re-watch all Farooq Shaikh comedies that I can get hold of. :-)

Probably someone has spilled more articulate ink on this topic than I am about to do, but: I have been told that not being a Hindi-speaker and/or not being Indian really impacts you most with comedies, because jokes are so difficult to translate linguistically and culturally. I didn't get Andaz Apna Apna at all, even though tons of people whose opinions I respect have told me it's their favorite. I'm curious what others have to say about the impact of language comprehension on humor.

That said, I loved Chupke Chupke, and as I sit here thinking about it while I should be working, I would probably agree with BollywoodFan that Munnabhai tops my list (I prefer the second one).

Welcome Never Mind!!. Looks like a new list of comedies is indicated. I was trying to keep a balance between well-known and unknown comedies but looks like the list is incomplete without hot favorite Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron!

Beth, I was surprised to see your review of AAA - thought you of all people would appreciate the nod to 70s masala and even more surprised to see that you liked Chupke Chupke! CC is a movie where a lot of the humor derives from linguistic and phonetic jokes that wouldnt sound so funny in English. In fact, I am told that they dont sound as funny in Hindi as they did in the Bengali original, either.

Apart from CC, I think most comedies have situational humor that isnt hard to translate - a lot of them are remakes from other languages, after all! I suspect that the subtitlers' sense of humor (or lack thereof) is what affects the comedy for non-Hindi speakers, there.

I don't like ur listing.There r many comedy movies in bollywood but u only manage to put 1 hilarious comedy movie in ur list and tat is Chupke Chupke.If u want to laugh then see these movies.I m sure u coudn't able 2 hold ur laugh..

Crazy on Bollywood - I love your list too (how can I not, considering that it has a Shashi-movie coming out on top!) especially Hera Pheri, Gol Maal (which I have mentioned in the post) and the Munnabhai series. Need to check out Dhamaal as its apparently a remake of my favorite Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Govinda's (and Kader Khan's) comedy however just doesnt make me laugh.

Maybe I need to revisit AAA. I saw it fairly early on and probably missed a lot.... I loved Chashme Baddor and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, now that I have been reminded of them! Good call on Do aur Do Paanch, Crazy! Also, I realized after I posted yesterday that two of my very favorite Hindi films may not technically count as comedies but they make me laugh a lot: Main Hooh Na and Bunty aur Babli.

Beth AAA doesnt seem to tickle everybody's funny bone, but there are so many other great Bollywood comedies that you'll have plenty of choice! And yes, MHN and BaB made me laugh a lot too, but I think a lot of the humor in MHN was unintended and a direst result of SRK and Zayed Khan's hamming.

Amrita your objection is well taken. I am editing post to include JBDY since everybody protests its non-inclusion! :-)

Bollyviewer, Just saw your edited post. JBDY seems to be a hot favorite with everyone, so I guess I'll be the odd one out when I say that I found the movie somewhat boring! I remember watching it as a child and laughing non-stop but when I rewatched it recently, it seemed very childish to me. I very much like the theme of the movie and the Mahabharatha scene still makes me laugh uncontrollably but for the rest, I find the humour forced and predictable .

Ruchi, someone else I know also made a similar comment about JBDY. I too, saw it as a kid and at that time I laughed and laughed. Now, all I remember is the satirical theme, the laughter and of course the Mahabharata scene. Need to re-watch and find out if it still strikes me as funny. At any rate, the issues it tackles with humor, should make it a comedy worth watching and it certainly cant be as unfunny as a David Dhawan comedy! ;-)

Hi Deependra, thanks for stopping by. I love Hera Pheri (I assume your reference is to the Priyadarshan one) and Satte Pe Satta, too though the latter is more of a fun-masala movie than a full-on comedy. Padosan, however, just doesnt appeal and I am still looking for Manoranjan.

Thanks for the great review of Angoor. This is one of my favourite comedies of any genre or language, and an under-rated gem. Unlike the wincingly unfunny Andaz Apna Apna. That screechfest for me was slightly less fun than DIY root canal surgery. I like a lot of Hindi comedy, ESPECIALLY the sublime Johnny Walker, and movies like Chashme Buddoor, but AAA was a truly painful experience.

You found Andaz Apna Apna that unfunny?!! The world does seem to be divided between lovers of AAA and its detractors! I am generally not a fan of comedies unless there is an element of satire or sarcasm in them. Which is why I loved AAA - it lampoons masala movies so well, and also has Salman Khan in a part that suits him beautifully (he plays brainless morons so well!). ;-)

And I totally agree about Chashme Buddoor and Johnny Walker - he's the only comedian I can bear to watch.

It is a great way to generate the debate about one of the greatest section of Bollywood. Great comedy movies are like wine, older it gets better it becomes. I think these are the only movies which people can watch n number of time and still ready to watch it again. I do agree with your selection but has my reservation too. There are some great movies which still make me laugh are (and not mention by you):Chashme BuddoorBombay to GoaKhubsooratPadosanHera Pheri (New Paresh Rawal one)

I love all the films on your list (except for Padosan whose broad humor just doesnt appeal to me), too. It just goes to show how many great comedies Bollywood has produced over the years when you make a top ten and still have so many films to choose from. I had forgotten about Bombay To Goa - that was a fun film!

You are welcome.Yes indeed it is difficult to choose. But you are doing a great job by reliving the old movies with modern mind and views. Will love to read all the post and new ones coming. Keep up the good work.

Well ofcourse these are the evergreen movies which have set the trademark in bollywood comedies. I love classics and almost have watched all the movies listed here. My all time fav from the list is 'Chalti ka naam gaadi' and 'Jaane bhi do yaaron.But I think the list misses other great comedies like 'Half Ticket, 'Golmaal'(The old one),Khatta Meetha,Chupke Chupke etc!!!

SAMIT, Chupke Chupke was first on my list! And I love Golmaal (Amol Palekar one) a lot too (it does get a mention) - it just lost out to other Hrishikesh Mukherji films since I had decided to include no more than two of his films in the list.

Thanks for the recommendartions! I love Angorr to ibts and think it one of the funniest comedies of any film industry that I've seen. Likewise Chashme Buddoor which didn't make your list, and Chupke Chupke. Hungama was OK, but at least I laughed once or twice in it, which is around double the number of times I laughed through Andaz Apna Apna. Despite enjoying many Hindi comedies, I found AAA painful and irritating to watch, as funny as someone scratching fingernails down a blackboard for 2.5 hours while perfoming root canal surgery on me. Because of its iconic place in filmi comic lore I'm actually gonig to give it another go, to see if I can find anything remotely funny in it on second watching.

lol, maxqnz. If AAA was so bad on the first watch, I dont think it will grow any better for you on your second watch! So leave it be. There are plenty of other good comedies to enjoy. I love Chashme Buddoor, too - just find it more heart warming and sweet than laughter-inducing, though it has its funny moments too.

I am hoping that improved Hindi comprehension might help me get more out of the film. It's the same reasom I'm giving Sholay another go - a film which I did not dislike but which left me underwhelmed except for the Dharmendra/Hema chemistry.

O cool. Let me know if AAA sounds funnier with more Hindi - I suspect not, since the jokes are not language based but 70s masala-conventions based. Sholay had a lot of fun moments - some quite unintended as I found the OTT dramatic dialogues in the serious scenes pretty hilarious.

I think I too am in the minority about AAA. I could barely see it for 10 mins and then I switched off my TV/DVD.

I like your list as well as suggestions from others. There are indeed scores of hindi movie comedies from different decades. Getting a list of 10 is indeed a tough call - u have done well. I am not attracted to Yahan Wahan coz i don't think Rati is a good actress

Filmbuff, the heroine of Yahan Wahan is Surinder Kaur. Rati is in Pasand Apni Apni and does a pretty good job, too.

AAA does seem to divide people pretty sharply! I think I am fond of it because it was one of the first films I saw in the theatre with more than a dozen classmates from college. We had such a gala time!

Hi! Almost all the films in this post are my favs. with Chupke Chupke and Angoor fighting for the top spot!! Haven't seen Naram Garam and Pasand Apni Apni yet. But I sooooo want to watch Miss Mary for the beautiful Meena Kumari in a comic caper. Have seen her in Memsahab - one of her few light hearted roles - and loved her inhibited persona there!

I do not find Padosan even remotely funny, so it would never make it to a list of my favorite comedies! Bollyviewer, thanks for this! I hated Padosan with a vim and a verve, and never understood its fascination for people. Hera Pheri was the remake of a Malayalam film called Ramji Rao Speaking.

If you dont find Padosan funny, you do have some serious problems. Hungama better than Hera Pheri??? Also Katha and Chashme Badoor by sai paranjpye is funnier than Pasand Apni Apni or Naram Garam. If any Amol Palekar deserves to be in top ten then it HAS to be Gol Maal.

thanks a lot for such excellent selection of movies. we all watched 'Miss Mary' yesterday...and loved the movie. Meena Kumari and Shivaji Ganeshan (what a pair) and music by Hemant da...thanks once again

About Me

I love old - books, movies, fashions, buildings.... Wish I could travel back in time to see how people lived "once upon a time". In my everyday life, I am a researcher at a university and spend long hours at work. A lot of my leisure time is spent with books and movies, and now, writing about movies.